The Girl In The War (Under Editing)

Part Ten

Once Foy had been taken Rose was walking around checking on everybody but she quickly turned on her heels when she saw a camera, not really wanting to have to fake a smile or a laugh. But as she was walking away a loud shot rang out throughout Foy, Rose ran for cover and she found herself next to Lip who peaked around the corner to see where the sniper was, "i cant see him" Lip moaned, Rose swapped places with Shifty so when they found where the sniper was he could take him out. Lip told shifty where sniper was before pleading "don't miss shifty" and with that the 1st sergeant found himself running in the open in order to distract the sniper so shifty could have a shot, once the sniper was down everyone began to move again, soldiers were making there way around checking on the bodies that littered the towns floor and Rose was waiting for her to be called.

Easy company had been busy taking small towns that they were told too with Lieutenant Speirs leading them, the company was finally allowed to have a rest, the company found themselves listening to a choir sing in a convent. Rose and Roe had bandaged up many wounds throughout the assaults and that included Perconte's butt wound. While patching it up Rose had laughed, for real, for the first time in what felt like years, Perconte and Roe had loved the sound and they were both hopeful that it was a sign of Rose returning to her old self, at least as much as she could with everything she had been through.

In the convent Rose sat next to Luz, with her feet over his lap and her back resting against Lip's legs, Rose had taken out her last cigarette and lit it up without second guessing herself and relaxed. Her head fell back on Lip's knees as she felt her eyes slowly close and all she could hear was the gentle voices of the choir. Speirs had sat down next to Lip and the movement had made Rose sit up with a jolt, Lip stood up so Rose was now sat next to Speirs who looked at the 1st Sargent and asked "what is it?" when he did not get an answer he gave Lip back his paper and said "i better get back to batalion before they disappear" Rose looked down at her hands as Speirs asked "well, go ahead and ask me" Lip looked at the man and asked "ask you what sir?" Rose looked up from her hands to listen to the conversation "The stories about me. You want to know if they're true, right? You know the funny thing about stories like that? Everyone always says they heard it from someone who was there. Then if you ask that person, they say they heard it from someone who was there, and so on" Rose looked up from her hands and began to listen intently "I bet if you went back 2,000 years, you'd find a bunch of centurions standing around talking about how Tertius lopped the heads off of some Carthaginian prisoners" Lip looked towards the man and answered "Well, maybe they kept talking about it because they never heard Tertius deny it" Rose looked at Speirs as he turned to her and smiled gently "maybe that's because Tertius knew there was some value to the men thinking he was the meanest, toughest son of a bitch in the whole Roman legion" Speirs began to walk away but was stopped by Lip "these men aren't really concerned about the stories, they're just glad to have you had their CO, they're happy to have a good leader again" The lieutenant looked down and then looked back up again "from what i've heard they've always had one. I've been told that there's always been one man they can count on, lead them in and held them together in the woods, everyday kept their spirits up, kept the men focused and gave them direction. All the things a good combat leader does" Rose smiled as she realized he was talking about Lip but from the look on Lip's face she knew that he had no idea "you have no idea who i'm talking about do you?" Lip shook his head "hell, it was you 1st sergeant, ever since Winters made battalion you've been the leader of easy company, along with with your second in command" Speirs looked towards Rose who looked at him in shock at what he was implying and he was about to walk away when he turned back around and faced lip "and your not gonna be 1st sergeant much longer, Winters applied for a battlefield commission and Sink approved on your behalf, you should get the official nod in a few days... congratulations lieutenant" Speirs was about to walk away again but was stopped by Rose "sir" both men looked towards the medic "who's Tertius?" Both men looked towards each other before they started to laugh gently.